The World Wide Web (“the Web”) allows users of Web browser applications to retrieve information (e.g., Web pages) from Web servers and display that information. The Web has also increasingly become a medium used to shop for items, such as products or services for purchase, rent, lease, license, trade, evaluation, sampling, etc. Indeed, a vast number of different items may be ordered or obtained on the Web. In many circumstances, a user who plans to purchase an item on the Web can visit the Web site of a Web merchant that sells the item, view information about the item, give an instruction to purchase the item, and provide information needed to complete the purchase, such as payment and shipping information.
After receiving an order for one or more items, a Web merchant fulfills that order by determining how and when to provide the items to the customer. The order fulfillment process typically used by Web merchants shares some similarities with other item ordering services (e.g., catalog-based shopping, such as from mail-order companies) in which ordered items are shipped, such as from a centralized distribution center that maintains the ordered item in inventory.
Although Web-based and catalog-based shopping can provide various advantages, such transactions can also have certain disadvantages. For example, some such disadvantages involve difficulties to customers and merchants in the conventional handling of the return of unwanted items. Such item returns can occur for a variety of reasons, including customers having purchased the wrong item, delivered items that are defective, an error in the order fulfillment process that resulted in the wrong item being provided or an item being provided to the wrong recipient, and the customer merely changing their mind. While there are many reasons that may lead to a customer's decision to return an item, a customer nonetheless typically desires to easily transfer possession of the item to the merchant and quickly receive any applicable refund or credit. Conversely, a merchant typically desires to minimize the cost of processing the return, maximize customer satisfaction regarding the returns process (e.g., by minimizing the activities required of the customer), quickly dispose of the returned items in the most economically advantageous manner, and protect itself from unscrupulous customers who attempt to improperly obtain refunds (e.g., for items that have been damaged or switched after delivery).
In a traditional brick-and-mortar retail store, customers conduct business in person, and returns are usually processed at the store. Such stores generally have the personnel and facilities to verify the condition and identity of the returned items, take possession of the items, and process any refund. Furthermore, such retail stores customarily have the infrastructure to resell items that are in good condition or to return items to a manufacturer or distributor as appropriate.
Web merchants have conventionally used a returns processing approach similar to that of brick-and-mortar retailers, such as by designating in advance one or more of their distribution centers or other specialized return centers (e.g., centers geographically distributed throughout the areas in which customers typically reside) to which customers ship all returned items. In many cases, a customer who would like to return an item first contacts the Web merchant to obtain a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) number for the item, such as via phone or the Web site of the merchant, which allows the Web merchant to estimate a volume of returned items that is expected and to later track shipped packages with returned items based on RMA numbers included with the packages. After receiving and verifying the returned items, the merchant typically issues a refund or credit to the customer as appropriate.
In other situations, a Web merchant may designate in advance one or more third-party return locations to which all items being returned will be shipped, such as a return processing location of a third-party service provider who performs specified types of processing on the items. For example, some such third-party service providers may perform activities to verify received items before forwarding the items back to the merchant, or in other situations may dispose of the returned items in manners other than returning them to the merchant (e.g., by storing the items until they are distributed to another destination). In other situations, a pre-designated third-party return location may merely be an off-site location that receives shipped packages having returned items so that the merchant can retrieve their packages from that location, such as by using Parcel Return Services of the regional Bulk Mail Centers (BMCs) of the United States Postal Service (USPS).
Unfortunately, these conventional returns processing approaches create various problems for Web merchants. For example, when a customer is not geographically near a pre-designated return location, the shipping of the items being returned may be expensive and may take an unduly long time to occur, resulting in a longer time before the customer receives their refund and before the Web merchant is able to resell the item. Furthermore, delays in return processing can create particular financial difficulties for merchants if the items being returned depreciate in value rapidly. In addition, for merchants that sell a wide variety of merchandise, some types of items may require specialized return processing (e.g., items of high value and/or of technical complexity, such as jewelry or electronics) that is costly to replicate at multiple locations, and thus items of that type that are being returned may ultimately need to be sent to a single remote location that performs the specialized return processing.
In light of these problems with conventional methods for processing returned items, it would be beneficial to have a more effective approach to return processing.